Fuel cells have received increasing attention as a valuable source of clean energy. However, due to the costs associated with the materials that go into making fuel cells, they are not economically feasible for use in many applications.
A key impediment of fuel cell implementation involves the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Because ORR is a kinetically slow process, ORR performance dominates the overall performance of fuel cell technologies. Currently, platinum-based catalysts are the most commonly used and studied for ORR. Consequently, due to the high-cost, limited supply, and limited efficiency of platinum-based catalysts, there still exists a need for cost-effective materials that can efficiently reduce oxygen.